Serpentine
by Lightningfall
Summary: Batman and Catwoman have just settled down to pursue their relationship, and things are going well. But when Bruce Wayne receives a strange phone call from someone claiming to be The Serpent, things spiral quickly downward. It seems that the Dark Knight must rise once again to save Gotham City… or die trying.


**Serpentine:**

**Part I**

**Act I: Collide**

_**We have fallen, we have fallen again tonight…**_

_**Where do we go from here, when they're tearing down our lives?**_

_**How long can we hold on?**_

_**Can we hold on?**_

_**Hold on!**_

_**~Collide~Skillet~**_

"_You'll just have to imagine the fire!" Bane growled in glee and squeezed his finger on the trigger of the gun he held to Batman's head. He lost all train of thought as he was thrown back by a blast that would have killed him instantaneously if it weren't for the aim being off by about two feet. As it was, he felt the shrapnel pierce his chest in over twenty places and he hit the wall behind him. Bane had known pain, oh, had he known pain, but this was so great that he nearly blacked out. He groaned inaudibly, and then time was no more…_

~(|)~

"Ah!" Bane gasped softly as his eyes shot open, waking him from the nightmarish memory. Pushing himself upright, he noticed several small blood splotches on the shell-like fabric that ensconced the majority of his chest.

"Ladon!" He called in an authoritative voice. The male whom he called upon appeared in the entryway nearly instantaneously. He was tall, slightly over six feet, and had sort-of shaggy light brown hair. The young man's most prominent features were his eyes, his left eye being a bright green and his right eye a light greenish-yellow hazel color. He was muscular; if his muscles weren't so obvious, one could take him for being slightly overweight. His skin was a whitish-tan, and he wore dark blue-jeans and a deep maroon long-sleeved shirt, tucked in at the waist. His only other accessories were a simple silver band on his right ring finger and a frown complete with glare to intimidate even the strongest of men.

"Yes?" He asked in a voice that suggested at a hiss. Bane blinked hard to clear his eyes of sleep and gestured to his chest.

"I am bleeding again." He said. He hated being injured; being forced to have others care for him. It brought back memories that he wished to stay hidden. Ladon stepped to him.

"You had another memory dream?" The nineteen-year-old asked quietly, so as not to alert the other soldiers. Bane gave a curt nod. The younger carefully unwound the fabric of the other's bandages and looked at the wounds. There were several bullet-sized rips in the skin of the masked tyrant. Ladon wiped them with a cloth that he produced from a small box that hung from his belt. Smearing them with an antibiotic, he rewrapped Bane's chest with clean fabric.

"Try not to twist around too much. They're healing, but only just. You can train if you like, but keep in mind that you're slightly disabled. The less you rip them open, the faster you heal…" Ladon trailed off.

"Yet the less I train, the weaker I become." Bane finished tiredly.

"Precisely." Ladon agreed with a pained tone. Bane nodded, standing up. He pulled on his shirt and vest, then donned his jacket over that.

"Ladon, why don't you show me some of the weapons you've been working on." It was more of an order than a suggestion, but Ladon would have agreed anyway. He straightened up and grinned in a way that unnerved every single one of the soldiers.

~(|)~

"Master Wayne, the phone for you." Alfred said in his British manner. Bruce groaned and got up, donning a dark blue housecoat and taking the proffered phone with a muttered 'thanks'.

"Hello?" He said groggily. The voice on the other end of the line startled him.

"Hello, Mister Wayne…" The voice said, hissing on the S's in his sentences.

"Who is this?" Bruce asked in a growl. The voice chuckled.

"You'll know soon enough." He said, and the Batman could imagine a snake's face on the other end of the line. He narrowed his eyes.

"What do you want?" Wayne asked.

"I want you to know that no-one can spit in the Serpent's face and get away with it," the voice spat out angrily. Bruce frowned.

"What?" He queried.

"Goodbye, Mister Wayne." There was a click, and the line went dead. Bruce held the phone in front of his face, taken slightly aback. He looked at Alfred and handed the phone back, confused.

"Who was that?" A feminine voice sounded. Both males looked back to see Selina Kyle standing in the doorway. She and Bruce embraced and he turned to Alfred.

"Someone called 'The Serpent'."

~(|)~

"And this is the altitude-adjustment glider." Ladon said, pointing out the wings that he had stolen from Lucius Fox. Bane nodded thoughtfully.

"Do they work?" He asked. Ladon glanced at him.

"By all calculations, yes. There is no way to test them underground here, there's no space to catch updrafts." He explained edgily. Bane made an expression that suggested he was frowning, although one couldn't tell because of his mask.

"It is nighttime. We could perform a test with one of the soldiers." The mastermind said thoughtfully. Ladon shuffled his feet slightly.

"It was designed using my measurements, therefore it will not fit anyone else." He said, cringing away from Bane a little. The masked vigilante surprised them all by emitting a laugh. He clapped Ladon on the shoulder.

"That's my snake-boy," he chuckled. Ladon glanced at him.

"Would you be willing to test them?" Bane asked. Ladon nodded, and took a breath.

"If I may show you the rest?" He asked nervously. _If you're gonna go down, go down with a bang_, he thought. Bane's eyebrows wrinkled and he chuckled.

"Go ahead, surprise me." The masked one said. Ladon grinned.

"Wait a moment, please." He disappeared into the blackness.

~(|)~

Ladon stepped out in a bodysuit that consisted of Kevlar sewn underneath a silver and black shirt that shone like dragon scales. He had pants made of the same material that were tucked into black combat boots with silvery trim. There was a harness that had two gloves on either side of the hips, and Bane recognized the gloves for the altitude adjusting wings.

The gloves had three 'fingers', one for Ladon's thumbs and two for his other four fingers, so he would form the Star Trek 'Spock Symbol' when using them. The gloves were positioned in such a way that the two metal dragon-like wing ribs curved backwards, forming a cape-like structure of fabric that flared away from him at the heels. Ladon himself wore a helmet that was shaped like a dragon's head, with a snout that extended about six inches from his face.

He had two horns on the back of his head and eye holes that were shaped like, well, eyes. The eyes were protected by strong Plexiglas; he had a horn on the end of his 'nose' and there were thin rectangular holes that formed the shape of a mouth. Ladon stood tall, squaring his shoulders. Bane nodded thoughtfully.

"Shall we test it?" The dragon asked. Bane nodded and they were transported to a remote area of Gotham City, the place where no-one lived that wasn't allied with Bane and his troops. Soldiers stood around Bane with guns and Ladon was escorted to the top of a tall tower. He stood on the edge, gloves on, ready to jump. He extended his arms, the wings receiving electricity to stay taut. His 'wingspan' reached nearly thirteen feet and his dragon-tail (made of the wing material as well and forming a mountain-shape) was about five feet long. It too had electricity running through it. Ladon gathered his courage and leaped, the wind tearing at his arms. He fought for half a moment to keep his wings extended and regained his control.

Feeling a warm updraft of air, he utilized the muscles in his arms to 'flap' his wings, thrusting his body upwards. Now, he couldn't _fly_, but he could sure as hell glide for as long as he wanted. His muscles burned slightly from the unusual strain and he laughed as he heard the rattling of the fabric against the wind. He looked down at Bane and decided to attempt to impress him and the soldiers below. He pressed a button in his right glove's thumb and laughed aloud with a childish glee as the small oxygen bladder he carried on his back engaged, and his helmet spewed flame from the holes in his snout. He himself wore a mask to protect his face from the heat.

Bane looked on as Ladon continued to show off and familiarize himself with the wings and suit. He couldn't help but be slightly impressed when the dragon painted the sky with flame and dove towards them, pulling himself back up into the heights of the sky at what seemed like the last few moments. Ladon finally glided down enough to fold his wings in by his elbows and drop to the ground, replacing his gloves. The child was breathing rather raggedly but Bane smiled under his mask.

"Come back to Base, I'd like to talk with you."

~(|)~

Bane led Ladon to a mostly empty area of the underground Base that they had dug out several years ago. Ladon looked at the masked one nervously.

"What did you think?" The younger asked. Bane looked at him, his eyes going soft for a moment.

"I'm proud of you, my son." He said quietly.

_**We are healing, but it's killing us inside…**_

_**Can we take a chance, when faith and fear collide?**_

_**There's something deep inside…**_

_**That keeps my faith alive!**_


End file.
